Topic 4: Change in Organizations

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Topic 4Change in Organizations
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Why Change Things?

• Unplanned Change
• Change in the environment
• Economic
• Laws
• Labor Issues
• Technology
• Demand for goods and services

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Why Change Things?

• Planned Change
• A direct response to a perceived need
• A performance gap that is, a discrepancy between
  the desired and actual state of affairs within
  the organization.

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Organizational Targets for Change

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Phases of Planned Change

• Kurt Lewin recommends that any change effort be
  viewed as a three-phase process
• Unfreezing
• Changing
• Refreezing

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Lewins Three-Phases of Planned Change
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Planned Change Strategies

• Organizational change agents use various means
  for creating planned change in the organization.
  Three major strategies are
• Force-coercion
• Rational persuasion
• Shared power

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Planned Change Strategies

• Force-coercion uses legitimacy, rewards, and
  punishment as primary inducements to change.
• The change agent acts unilaterally to try to
  command change through the formal authority of
  his/her position.
• People respond to this strategy out of fear of
  punishment or desire for reward.
• Compliance is usually temporary and will continue
  only as long as the change agent retains the
  punishment/reward power.

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Planned Change Strategies

• Rational persuasion attempts to bring about
  change by special knowledge, empirical support,
  and rational argument.
• Use of this strategy assumes that rational people
  will be guided by reason and self interest in
  deciding whether or not to support change.
• Expert power is mobilized to convince others that
  the cost-benefit value of a proposed change is
  high.
• When successful, this strategy results in a
  longer-lasting more internalized change than does
  force-coercion.

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Planned Change Strategies

• A shared power strategy actively involves other
  people who will be affected by a change in
  planning and making key decisions relative to the
  change.
• This approach seeks to establish directions and
  social support for change through the empowerment
  of others.
• This strategy is likely to result in longer
  lasting and internalized change.

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Resistance to Change

• Resistance is usually viewed as something to be
  overcome in order for change to be successful.
• Perhaps is might be better to view resistance to
  change as feedback that can be used
  constructively.
• Why do people resist change?

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Resistance to Change
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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Education and communication. Use of one-on-one
  discussion, presentations to groups, memos,
  reports, and demonstrations to educate people
  beforehand about change and to help them see the
  logic of the change.

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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Participation and involvement. Allowing others to
  help design and implement the changes asking
  individuals to contribute ideas and advice, or
  forming task forces or committees to work on
  change.

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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Facilitation and support. Providing
  socioemotional support for the hardships of
  change, actively listening to problems and
  complaints, providing training in the new ways,
  and helping to overcome performance pressures.

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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Negotiation and agreement. Offering incentives to
  actual or potential resistors working out
  trade-offs to provide special benefits in
  exchange for assurance that the change will not
  be blocked.

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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Manipulation and co-optation. Use of covert
  attempts to influence others selectively
  providing information and consciously structuring
  events so that the desired change receives
  maximum support.

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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Explicit and implicit coercion. Use of force to
  get people to accept change threatening
  resistors with a variety of undesirable
  consequences if they do not go along as planned.

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Resistance to Change

• Six general approaches for dealing with
  resistance to change
• Advantages
• Disadvantages

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Case Study

• The Warner Manufacturing Company
• Group Discussion 30 minutes
• Class Reports 30 minutes